Charges against a man arrested for allegedly robbing financial institutions in Langley and Edmonton in 2012 were thrown out after judges in B.C. and Alberta ruled the trial delay was excessive.
Matthew MacPherson faced charges of robbery and using an imitation firearm while committing an indictable offence in connection with the botched holdup of a Toronto Dominion branch in Langley on June 22, 2012.
When a lone man with an imitation firearm demanded $10,000 from a teller, he was given $250 with an anti-theft dye pack concealed in the bills.
The money was abandoned by the fleeing thief after the dye pack exploded in the parking lot just outside the branch.
A few weeks later, MacPherson was arrested in Red Deer, Alberta, and charged with four robberies in Edmonton.
The Edmonton Police Service alerted the Langley RCMP, which advised the Crown prosecutor’s office.
The office obtained a warrant for MacPherson’s arrest for the Langley holdup, but it didn’t apply outside B.C.
The plan was to let the Alberta authorities go first, then the B.C. Crown would get an order returning MacPherson to B.C. to answer the Langley charges.
But the Alberta authorities took too long to prosecute.
On March 10, 2014, an Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench judge threw out the case for unreasonable delay in part because the defence and prosecution lawyers couldn’t agree on trial dates.
The B.C. authorities then managed to obtain a court order to have MacPherson returned to answer the Langley charges, but by then, it was too late.
MacPherson’s lawyer argued the B.C. case should be thrown out for the same reason the Alberta charges were, because the delay violated the accused constitutional right to a quick trial.
Surrey Provincial Court Judge Ellen Gordon agreed.
In a December written judgement recently posted online, Jud ge Gordon noted that MacPherson spent 19 months in custody in Alberta followed by another eight-and-a-half months in B.C. before his trial began.
In a sternly worded decision, the judge called the delay “long and inexcusable” and faulted the B.C, prosecutor’s office for the holdups.
“The facts of this case beg the question, “What was the decider thinking?” Gordon said.
“A man has been denied the right to make full answer and defence. A man presumed innocent has been on charge for 853 days.”
The judge then ordered the charges stayed.